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GENERAL SULLIVAN 



NOT A 



PENSIONER OF LUZERNK 



GENERAL SULLIVAN 



NOT A 



PENSIONER OE LUZERNE. 



p.v 



1 /^ copy: 



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V4 

CAMBRIDGE : 

PRESS OF JOHN WILSON AND SON, 

1875. 



K^^Sl 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by 

JOHN WlI<SON AND SON, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



GENERAL SULLIVAN NOT A PENSIONER 
OF LUZERNE. 



For historical students, familiar with the events of our war 
of independence and the character of its leaders, reference to 
the early life or subsequent career of General Sullivan may not 
be requisite for our present purpose. To the public generally 
such information in regard to both is indispensable, for any 
thorough understanding of the questions which it is proposed 
to consider. It is certainly with no wish to parade his claim 
to grateful acknowledgment from his country, that this brief 
review of the part which he took in the struggle for national 
existence, is presented. With his countrymen generally, he did 
his best to make that struggle a success, according to his abili- 
ties and opportunities. But, when unjustly assailed, whoever is 
interested in his memory is not only entitled, but under solemn 
obligation, to vindicate it from undeserved reproach. 

His father came to this country, in early manhood, to seek 
an asylum from arbitrary rule at home. Having enjoyed the 
advantages of a liberal education, he long devoted himself at 
Somersworth in New Hampshire, and at Berwick in Maine, to 
the instruction of youth. His life was prolonged to the great 
age of one hundred and five, his death occurring in 1795. Of 
his six children, four took an active part in the revolutionary 
contest. The eldest, an officer in the English navy, died before 
the war broke out. Daniel resided at Sullivan in Maine, on 
Frenchman's Bay near Mount Desert. James early acquired 



reputation at the bar, and, at the age of thirty-one, was ap- 
pointed, in 1776, Judge of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, 
for sixteen years he was its Attorney-general, and, when he died 
in 1808, Governor of that State. Eben, also a lawyer, rose to 
the rank of major in the continental army, serving with dis- 
tinction. From the only daughter, Mrs. Hardy, descended the 
late Governor Wells of Maine, and John Sullivan Wells of the 
United States Senate from New Hampshire. 

John, the third son, and subject of this memoir, born in 
1740, was carefully educated by his father, and, after a voyage 
to the West Indies, entered the law-office of Judge Livermore 
at Portsmouth. His success in his profession placed him early 
among its leaders in his native State. By his earnest and elo- 
quent denunciations of parliamentary encroachments on the 
chartered rights of the province, and spirited contributions to 
the public press, he attracted attention and became popular. 
He early exhibited a taste for military science, was familiar 
with all the great historical battles, and, holding from 1772 
the rank of major under the crown, he drilled his neighbors 
in successive squads and companies, until they became efficient 
soldiers. 

He was sent to the first continental Congress, in September, 
1774, as representative from New Hampshire. He drafted, at 
least one of its important papers, took his share in its de- 
bates, and, in opposing the motion of Dickinson for another 
appeal to the King, with an eloquence eliciting high praise 
from John Adams. When at home in December, he participated 
in the attack on the fort near Portsmouth. The powder and 
arms captured, were removed, at his charge, to Durham, 
where they were concealed under the pulpit of the church 
opposite his dwelling, and subsequently used at Bunker Hill. 
Returning to Congress, he was appointed one of the eight brig- 
adiers who with Washington, in July, took command of the 
army engaged in the siege of Boston ; his brigade and tliat of 
General Greene forming the division of General Lee at Medford 
and Charlestown, which constituted the left wing of the Amer- 
ican army. He was twice sent to Portsmouth to fortify and 



protect that place from British cruisers ; and when, in January, 
the withdrawal of the Connecticut troops, whose term of enlist- 
ment had expired, imperilled the safety of the army, his influ- 
ence and earnest appeals brought down from New Hampshire 
two thousand men to replace them. 

After the evacuation of Boston by the British, in March, 
1776, General Sullivan marched his brigade by Providence to 
New York. Despatched thence to Canada, he extricated the 
army, seven thousand in number, prostrate with disease and 
beset by greatly superior forces, from a position threatening its 
destruction ; receiving from his officers, amongst whom were 
many of the most distinguished in the subsequent campaigns, 
high commendation for his services. At Long Island, now 
Major-General, with Lord Stirling and MacDougall for his brig- 
adiers, he commanded on the left of the outer line in the 
battle, where, after contending, as well as circumstances per- 
mitted, for three hours, with twenty-two thousand British and 
Hessians, Lord Stirling, who gained great honor on that day 
for his defence on the right, and himself were taken prisoners. 
With the approval of General Washington, he submitted to 
Congress Lord Howe's overtures for negotiation. Exchanged 
for General Prescott, he rejoined the army in season to take 
part in the masterly movements in West Chester to baffle 
General Howe in his efforts to take our troops at disadvan- 
tage. Howe withdrew to New York, sorely pressed by Sulli- 
van, who, for his services on the occasion, received in general 
orders the acknowledgments of the Commander-in-chief. 

After Lee was captured, on December 13, 1776, as next in 
command Sullivan marched his army to join Washington, and 
with him, Christmas night, crossed the Delaware through the 
ice. After a night's march, in command of the right wing, he 
entered Trenton at eight in the morning at the head of his 
troops. Rahl, the Hessian commander, was mortally wounded, 
and nearly a thousand prisoners were taken. A few days 
later, at Princeton, Sullivan drove the fortieth and fifty-fifth 
regiments from the town. During the rest of the winter, in 
front of the American lines at Morristown, he kept vigilant 



6 

•watcli over the movements of the enemy, checking their marauds 
and confining them within their entrenchments. 

Whilst waiting the following August for intelligence of the 
movements of Howe, who had quitted Nt3w York and sailed 
south with a large portion of his troops, Sullivan, learning 
that several regiments lay exposed along the shores of Staten 
Island, planned ah expedition to capture them. He ordered 
Colonel Ogden to cross at the old Blazing Star tavern with two 
regiments to surprise Colonel Lawrence ; Smallwood and De 
Borre at Halstead's Point to attack Colonel Barton, and Bus- 
kirk a,t the Dutch church. Ignorant or treacherous guides 
led astray some of the columns in the darkness of the night, 
and, although many prisoners were captured, the result fell 
short of expectation. A court of inquiry, composed of Stir- 
ling, Knox, and MacDougall, decided that the expedition was- 
eligible and well concerted, and would have succeeded hut for 
accidents not to be foreseen or prevented, and that the con- 
duct of General Sullivan, in planning and executing the expe- 
dition, deserved the approbation of the country and not its 
censure. Their judgment was confirmed by Congress. 

Four days after the descent on Staten Island, Howe landed 
on the Chesapeake at the head of Elk Kiver with nearly twenty 
thousand troops. Sullivan proceeded without delay to join 
Washington on the Brandywine, thirty miles below Philadel- 
phia. He was posted in command of the right wing, com- 
posed of his own division under De Borre, Stirling's and 
Stephen's, on the north bank up the river, with Hazen's regi- 
ment still higher up ; Washington, with Greene and Maxwell, 
lying lower down, opposite Chad's Ford. On the eleventh of 
September, Howe was at Kennet Square, seven miles from 
the river, and, whilst Knyphausen made a feigned attack on 
Maxwell, marched his army through dense woods in a thick 
fog, and, crossing above the forks, where Hazen was stationed, 
came down the north bank about two in the afternoon. 

Sullivan instantly proceeded with his own division to join 
Stirling and Stephen, who, ])eing nearer head-quarters, were 
earher notified aud already in line. The three divisions, hardly 



five tliousand strong, boldly contested the ground for two hours 
against thrice their numbers, " fifty-five minutes nearly muzzle 
to muzzle." De Borre's division had been headed off by the 
enemy in their approach, and some confusion resulted from his 
not obeying orders ; but the l)attle was hotly contested, and the 
loss that day sustained by the enemy, as shown by rolls captured 
at Germantowu, exceeded two thousand.* When the right 
wing, that bore the brunt of the conflict, finally gave way, 
Sullivan, taking command of Weeden's brigade, joined Greene, 
who had come up double quick from below, and the battle con- 
tinued till nightfall, Sullivan having his horse shot under him. 
The retreat of tlic army was effectually secured and the enemy 
discouraged from pursuit. 

Five days later, the two armies were confronted at Goshen ; 
but an engagement was prevented by a violent storm, and Howe 
proceeded on his way to Philadelphia. Mr. Burke of North 
Carolina, who had gone out to see the battle, hearkened to 
the prejudiced accounts of persons hostile to Sullivan, and in 
Congress spoke disparagingly of his course. Whereupon his 
companions in arms, Laurens, Hamilton, Lafayette, and all 
whose opinions were of value, bore willing witness to his cool- 
ness, courage, and judicious dispositions throughout the day ; 
and he was entirely exonerated by Washington from another 
charge, that of want of vigilance in learning earlier the approach 
of the enemy. Mr. Burke later acknowledged his mistake. 

No suita])le accommodation being found for the British 
troops in Philadelphia, they were encamped six miles out, at 
German town. The American army left Matucbin Hills at nine 
on the evening of the third of October, for a night-march of 
fourteen miles to attack them. Sullivan commanded the riglit 
wing, Greene the left. The former reached Cbestnut Hill at 
daybreak, and, attacking the advanced posts, drove them back, 
and, pushing on nearly two miles below the Chew Plouse, he 
encountered the left wing of the British, and a severe conflict 
ensued. Ordering his troops to advance, when the moment 

* This English habit of understating loss sustained by them in battle of life 
or limb is as old as Crcssy, Athenry, and llallidun Hill. 



8 

arrived, the enemy broke ; malviug a stand, however, wherever 
ground or wall permitted. Sullivan sent word to Washington 
of his success, and requesting that Wayne should be ordered 
forward to attack the enemy's right ; General Greene, who 
had a larger circuit to make, having been delayed. A British 
force had taken possession of the Chew House, which was of 
stone, and Washington and Knox liad halted there to reduce 
it, but even artillery made little impression upon its solid 
walls. Sullivan was still pushing on, when, Wayne being 
ordered back to the Chew House, his left flank became ex- 
posed to the enemy, who were rallying in large numbers. The 
morning was foggy ; and, in the obscurity from this cause and 
the smoke of the battle, Stephen's division fired upon Wayne's. 
The troops, in their three hours' combat, had expended their 
ammunition, when an alarm that they were surrounded created 
a panic, and the army retired with victory in their grasp. They 
made good their retreat with little loss. Washington, in his 
report to Congress, accorded high praise to General Sullivan. 
Among the killed were his two aids. White and Sherburn. 

During the ensuing winter, Sullivan remained at Valley 
Forge engaged in building a bridge over the Schuylkill. In 
April, he was placed in command of the department of Rhode 
Island. France had taken a deep interest in the strife between 
England and her colonics. Some vexation throughout all classes 
of the nation was natural at the loss of Canada; there were seeth- 
ing, besides, in the popular mind sentiments in sympathy with 
resistance to oppression, and thus both king and people favor- 
ably inclined towards the colonies in their strike for indepen- 
dence. Aid was secretly extended, arms and money furnished ; 
and, after Bennington and Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga, in 
October, 1777, France recognized our existence as a nation, 
and, in February, s.igned the treaty of alliance, offensive and 
defensive. The welcome tidings reached Providence a few 
days after Sullivan's arrival there, and were celebrated with 
fitting expression of the general gratification they afforded. 
In July, D'Estaing, with twelve ships of the line and four 
frigates with four thousand land troops on buard, after a 



9 

long voyage of eighty-seven days, arrived off the coast. The 
Britisli had evacuated Philadelphia, sustaining a serious dis- 
comfiture if not an actual defeat at Monmouth, in traversing 
New Jersey, and were already concentrated in New York, when, 
on the eleventh of July, the French fleet reached Sandy Hook 
with intent of attacking the place. Not finding it practicable 
to cross the bars or pass the batteries that guarded the channel 
up to the city without pilots, it was concluded, that D'Estaiug 
should co-operate with Sullivan against Newport, the garrison 
of which was re-enforced on the seventeenth to the number of 
seven thousand men. Sullivan, receiving information of the 
final decision on the twenty-third, lost no time in carrying out 
the instructions of Washington. By earnest appeals to the 
neighboring States, with fifteen hundred men from the main 
army, he collected together in two weeks nine thousand men, 
not very well armed and with little experience in war, only 
fifteen hundred of whom had ever been in action. He had with 
him, however, Greene, Lafayette, Cornell, Yarnum, and Glover, 
all able and experienced general officers ; and Crane, Gridley, 
and Gouvion, distinguished engineers. 

On the thirtieth of July, D'Estaing arrived off" Point Judith, 
and Sullivan went on board to concert measures of co-oper- 
ation. Two vessels were sent without delay round Conani- 
cut to capture three regiments on that island, but they were 
at once withdrawn. Three other vessels were sent into the 
east passage to cover the crossing of the American troops, 
and three British vessels of less force stationed there were set 
on fire and destroyed ; and, on the fifth, five other frigates in 
the west passage were burnt or sunk. On the eighth, D'Estaing 
forced the main or middle passage and moored opposite the 
town, but behind Rose and Goat Islands; and on that day, 
the troops expected by Sullivan arriving from Boston, and 
Butt's Hill, which commanded Howland's Ferry on to the 
island, the best place for crossing, being evacuated, Sullivan, 
on the ninth, crossed over with a large portion of l\js army, 
leaving at Tiverton a certain number which it had been 
proposed should join D'Estaing under Lafayette, who that 

2 



10 

morning proceeded to the fleet with information of what had 
been done. 

The French troops were ah'eady partly in the boats, partly 
ashore on Conanicut, whence, near Lawton's Valley, they were 
to cross on to the main island, when an English fleet hove in 
sight. No time was lost in re-embarking the men and making 
the necessary dispositions for action. D'Estaing could not tell 
but that Byron, at the time expected daily from Europe, was 
there as well as Howe. The north wind springing up the next 
morning, he went in pursuit ; but the storm on the twelfth dis- 
persed both fleets, dismasted two of the French ships, and when 
D'Estaing came back on the twentieth it was to inform Sullivan. 
he must go round to Boston to refit. The Americans were not 
in strength to attack the place without aid from the French ; 
the road was now open for re-enforcements and for the English 
fleet to intercept their crossing; and three thousand volunteers 
went off on the twenty-eighth. No alternative remained but to 
withdraw to the north end of the island, which was effected that 
night. The next day took place what Lafayette pronounced the 
best fought battle of the war, between equal numbers, five 
thousand on either side; the British loss, according to the best 
accounts, exceeding a thousand killed, wounded, and prisoners.* 
As officers and men alike did their duty, it would be out of place 
to ascribe to the general in command any particular credit : it 
belonged alike to them all. Next day, Clinton arrived with 
five thousand British troops ; but Sullivan, who had despatched 
Lafayette to Boston to induce D'Estaing to come down by land, 
had learned that this was not practicable, and already crossed 
back to the main. At a subsequent page, in another connec- 
tion, reference will be made to other incidents in the Rhode 
Island campaign, for the purpose of correcting erroneous 
impressions with regard to them. 

la 1779, little could be attempted. The French fleet was in 
the "West Indies. The resources of the country Avcre com- 
pletely drained, and the English seemed indisposed to be 
active ; but General Sullivan at the head of a force of nearly 
* See note, page 7. 



11 

four thousand men entered the Indian territory to retaliate for 
the massacre of Wyoming, and by burning their villages and 
plantations to deter the Indians from molesting our frontiers. 
The only encounter with them was at Newtown, which they 
speedily evacuated. Fatigues and exposures on this expedition 
undermined the health of General Sullivan ; and, warned by 
his physician, he sent in his resignation, and in December left 
the army. 

The following letter of Washington shows the estimation in 
which he was held by his Commander-in-chief; who, with 
Greene, Lafayette, Stirling, MacDougall, Stark, and many 
of the noblest leaders in the war were ever his steadfast 
friends : — 

" It is unnecessary for me to re23eat to you how high a place you 
hold in my esteem. The confidence you have experienced, and the 
manner in which you have been employed on several important occa- 
sions, testify the value I set upon your military qualifications, and the 
regret I must feel, that circumstances have deprived the army of your 
services. The pleasure I shall always take in an interchange of good 
offices, in whatever station you may hereafter be placed, will be the best 
confirmation of my personal regard." 

As he was recovering from dangerous and painful illness he 
■was chosen to Congress from New Hampshire, and for rea- 
sons hereafter stated declined ; but, yielding to the earnest re- 
quest of the Committee of Safety, jfinally consented. Pie went 
to Philadelphia in August, 1780, and remained a year. We 
have reserved for a different connection the account of the 
service he there rendered to the cause. He labored zealously 
and unremittingly to do his part, and the journals and his corre- 
spondence show with what effect. Some of the older members 
would have preferred that affairs should have been still ad- 
ministered by committees ; but heads of departments were 
substituted, and for this and other important reforms he 
exerted his influence. He was proposed as a candidate for 
the war department ; but he had no wish for the office, even 
if his independent course had not precluded the likelihood of 
his election. 



12 

The next few years, as Attorney-general of New Hampshire, 
an office held by himself, son, and grandson for half a century ; 
as Major-general, in which function he made the military force 
of the State, twenty thousand men, effective by a system of drill 
and discipline, important from its nearness to the frontier, and 
as renewal of the war was at times anticipated ; as Speaker of the 
Assembly and Chief Executive of the State, to which position 
he was thrice chosen ; as President of the Convention to ratify 
the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, brought about, it was 
said, mainly by his influence and efforts ; as one of the most 
energetic in putting down the rebellion of 1786 ; as doing Avhat 
he could to introduce manufacturing industry into the south- 
east section of the State, now one of its busiest centres in the 
world; and in performance of his duties as Federal Judge, — 
he did whatever was in his power to develop the country, shape 
its institutions, and promote its welfare. 

He died comparatively young, — at the age of fifty-four, — 
of disease contracted by exposure in the war, at his home in 
Durham, which remained that of his widow till her death in 
1820. With this brief sketch of the leading events of his life, 
the reader will be better able to appreciate the injustice of 
seeking to attach to his memory the reproach proposed by his 
calumniator. His extensive correspondence, contributions to 
the press, when, as candidate for office, he refuted every charge 
brought against him, though this particular charge that he was 
a pensioner of Luzerne, never was dreamt of, acquaint us with 
every important incident of his public career, financial condi- 
tion, and traits of character. Prejudice and ill-nature may be 
safely challenged for proof or reason to believe that he was other 
than upright and honorable in all his dealings, otherwise than 
faithful to every obligation. It seems difficult to account for 
the perversity that, without one particle of evidence, can con- 
strue a simple loan of three hundred dollars, such as he had 
made himself to others, and certainly to one French officer 
not repaid for many years, into any indication of corrupt 
motive. 

From this brief sketch of the leading incidents in his career. 



13 

our readers will be better able to understand the nature of the 
charge now for the first time brought against his integrity, and 
to judge if in the utter absence of any evidence to prove it there 
is the slightest probability or possibility of its being true. It 
will now be stated, and appeal is made with entire confidence 
to the candor of the public, if the actual circumstances warrant 
any such imputation. 

In the tenth volume of the History of the United States, 
recently published, is found, at page 502, the passage, " That 
New Hampshire abandoned the claim to the fisheries was due 
to Sullivan, who at the time was a pensioner of Luzerne." * 
Why Sullivan opposed making the concession of the fisheries 
a condition of peace was explained by himself in 1785. In 
the canvass for the presidency of New Hampshire from 1784 to 
1789, in three of which years he was elected, John Langdon 
being his competitor, whatever could be said with any plausi- 
bility by their respective partisans to the prejudice of the 
opposite candidate, after the fashion of the times was improved 
to influence the result. His vote on the fisheries was not 
overlooked, and became subject of comment in the public press. 
In explanation of the reasons which governed him in his vote, 
he says that the general instructions to our ministers respect- 
ing the fisheries remained the same as they were first formed 
before he went to Congress in August, 1780. Independence 
was the great ultimatum, and the general instructions directed 
the negotiators to secure our right of fisheries on the banks. 
Whilst in Congress Franklin, Jay, Jefferson, and Laurens were 
added to Adams as commissioners of peace. It was moved, in 
the course of the debate on their powers, that the fisheries 
should be made an additional article of the ultimatum, which 
he opposed, as it was already included in their general instruc- 
tions, and he thought it unwise to fetter ministers who could 

* The passage, page 452, " that, with the aid of Sullivan of New Hampshire, 
who was in the pay of France, instructions such as Vergennes might have 
drafted were first agreed upon," needs no other answer than that made to what 
is quoted in the text. As to the fisheries, the instructions were not changed 
whilst Sullivan was in Congress, and it would have been folly and breach of 
faith to propose terms to which France or Vergennes objected. 



14 

better judge what could be judiciously insisted upon. To quote 
his own language : — 

" With respect to the second charge, I can only say, that the general 
and secret instructions to our ministers respecting the fishery remained 
the same as they were first formed, years before I went to Congress 
in 1780. The secret instructions made the independence of the thirteen 
United States, and every part of them, — the grand ukimatum of a 
peace; and the general instructions, among other things, dii'ected them 
to secure our right of fisherj' on the banks. 

" When I was in Congress, Dr. Franklin, Mr. Jay, Governor Jeffer- 
son, and Mr. Laurens were added to Mr. Adams. New instructions 
were framed, but no alteration made respecting the fishery. It was 
indeed moved by a member that the fishery should be made an addi- 
tional article of the ultimatum, to which I, among others, objected, 
and thought our general instructions to our ministers on that head 
were sufficient to show the wishes of Congress ; that their own incli- 
nations would prompt them to use every possible efl^ort to secure it ; 
and that it would be dangerous for Congress, at so great a distance, 
who could not possibly know the disposition of the European powers, 
to dictate positively the articles of peace, and thereby fetter ministers 
who, in my opinion, had as much zeal for the American interest, and 
had more knowledge of what we could or could not obtain, than all 
Congress together. Besides, let the articles agreed to, be as they 
might, they could not be binding on Congress until ratified by them. 
Every person must know that the capture of General Lincoln and his 
army was owing to the positive orders of Congress to keep possession 
of Chnrlestown. 

" And I confess myself to be one of those who had rather trust the 
command of an army to a good general on the ground than to a 
Congress at five liundred miles' distance ; and the making a peace to 
five of the greatest characters in America than to a Congress at three 
thousand miles' distance ; especially as, after all, Congress could 
approve or disapprove, as they thought proper. 

" There never was a question in Congress whether the fishery should 
be given up ; and if there had, I should have been the last man in 
America to have yielded it to Britain ; but I could not see the neces- 
sity of making it an additional article in our ultimatum. Our right to 
fish on Jaffrey's Ledge, and off Boon Island and the Isle of Shoals, were 
not articles of the ultimatum, yet we were never in danger of losing it. 



15 

" When the instructions ' Honestus ' alludes to were made out, great 
part of New York and Virginia, and the whole of Georgia, were in 
possession of the enemy; we were without money, our paper currency 
had vanished, and our army was revolting; a change against us, even 
before our instructions arrived, was at least possible. Had Arnold's 
plan succeeded ; had Greene been defeated in the South ; had "Wash- 
ington been unsuccessful against Cornwallis ; had the French fleet 
been blocked up in the Chesapeake by the British ; had Britain 
obtained a decisive naval victory over our allies ; had Russia and 
Germany, or even the former, declared in favor of Britain, we might 
have been compelled to accept terms less favorable than we obtained. 
Either of those events was possible ; and yet our ministers obtained 
not a single point but what they were instructed to insist on. But as 
the events of war were uncertain, I acknowledge, and glory in the 
confession, that I was one of those who objected to fettering our min- 
isters, and positively to dictate orders of peace, to five gentlemen who 
were in my opinion, more than equal in the business of negotiation to 
all the members then on the floor of Congress." 

Jay was of the same opinion as himself, and enough more to 
defeat the motion, and leave the commissioners under their 
general instructions, which covered the fisheries as finally 
conceded in the articles. 

The statement implies that he was influenced in his vote by 
being a pensioner of Luzerne. All that has been transmitted 
of that minister renders it improbable that he ever sought to 
tamper with the integrity of members of Congress. It could 
not well have escaped detection if he had, and would have led 
to his disgraceful expulsion from his post. What his char- 
acter and conduct were may be gathered from the following 
biographical notice of him. 

Born in 1741, after having served in the seven years' war, 
in which he rose to the rank of colonel, he abandoned the 
military career, resumed his studies, and turning his views to 
diplomacy, was sent in 1776 envoy extraordinary to Bavaria, 
and distinguished himself in the negotiations which took place 
in regard to the Bavarian succession. In 1778 he was appointed 
to succeed Gerard as minister to the United States, and con- 
ducted himself during five years he remained with a prudence, 



16 

wisdom, and concern for their interests that gained liim the 
esteem and affection of the Americans. In 1780, when the 
army was in the most destitute condition, and the government 
without resources, he raised money on his own responsibility, 
and without waiting for orders from his court to relieve the 
distress. He exerted himself to raise private subscriptions, 
and placed his own name at the head. In 1783 he returned 
to France, having received the most flattering expressions of 
esteem from Congress, and in 1788 was sent an ambassador 
to London, where he remained till his death in 1791. When 
the Federal Government was organized, Jefferson the Secretary 
of the State by order of Washington made Luzerne an express 
acknowledgment of his services, and the sense entertained of 
them by the nation. 

As the proceedings of Congress were with closed doors, the 
proposition to couple two such incongruous and disproportion- 
ate matters in the ultimatum of negotiation as independence 
and the fisheries was too inappropriate to be anticipated, 
and Luzerne could not have been present either to dictate or con- 
sult. The insinuation of the historian, that General Sullivan 
opposed it or voted against it in accordance with his wishes, or 
in requital for the loan, is simply absurd. The motion cer- 
tainly deserved to be voted down as it was, and not only Jay, 
but many members of unquestionable wisdom, integrity, and 
unswerving devotion to the interests of their country, voted 
with him. New Hampshire, neither by that vote nor by any 
other, ever abandoned the fisheries, for they were in the general 
instructions with boundaries, indemnities, and like points for 
negotiation. To couple them with independence in the ulti- 
matum would have turned a solemn proceeding into a jest. 

Besides what advantage could it have been either to France 
or Spain, that their inveterate enemy and rival should retain a 
monopoly of her fisheries, — both Catholic lands, peculiarly 
dependent on a plentiful supply of their Lenten food. Even 
during the war American fishermen went freighted to their ports 
with the treasures of the sea, which were to prove an important 
equivalent in the new markets opened to them here by national 



17 

gratitude for their commodities of silk and wine. The fallacy 
of the statement of the historian is sufficiently obvious to who- 
ever is conversant with what it signifies ; but, to readers not as 
familiar with the actual condition of affairs, an erroneous im- 
pression may be conveyed. It is enough to say that, as this is 
the only instance cited or evidence advanced of any act or 
word that could have been influenced by the loan, the charge 
is not only unsustained, but words fail to express the enormity 
of this attempt, with such an entire absence of proof, to tarnish 
the memory of one of our patriots, ever honest and honorable 
in all his transactions public and private, to the great distress 
of his descendants. 

General Sullivan when in 1774, at the age of thirty-four, 
elected to the First Congress, was busily occupied in his pro- 
fessional pursuits. Mr. Adams, in June of that year, mentions 
in a letter to Mrs. Adams, in speaking of General Sullivan's 
success at the bar, that he was said to have already accumu- 
lated by his practice and judicious investments, ten thousand 
pounds, represented by farms and seven mills, which were his 
delight and profit. From the rapid depreciation of the cur- 
rency and unavoidable expenses attending the war, whatever 
available resources he had were exhausted, and when with 
shattered constitution he left the army, December, 1779, after 
five years' constant exposure, he was sore pressed, as his lands 
were unsalable, for means to provide for his wife and children. 
He says in 1785 that he had never received but the nominal 
sum in paper for his services, being the only officer in Amer- 
ica who had received no depreciation or allowance therefor. 
There was due to him when he resigned, as back pay, thirty 
months' allowance as commander of a separate department 
and for money advanced, in all five thousand dollars, no part 
of which was paid him before September, 1781, after he had 
been a year in Congress. Although fifteen hundred dollars 
was then voted him for the advances he had made, not wishing 
to take what was needed for the pressing needs of the country, 
he received only two hundred in cash from the treasury. The 
rest was paid in a draft on New Hampshire, which was not 
realized by him till some time after. 

8 



18 

He had hardly left the service, recovered from illness in- 
duced by his late campaign, and resumed his practice, when he 
was again elected without his knowledge as the representative 
in Congress from his State. From a sense of obligation to his 
family, he declined, but urgently solicited by the Committee 
of Safety, on the plea that public interests demanded the sacri- 
fice, he consented to go. All they could promise him was one 
dollar a day, and all in their power to pay was two hundred 
and two dollars before his return. 

The Vermont controversy was pending before Congress 
between New York and New Hampshire, and the inhabitants 
of the territory, and fifty-four townships, between one and two 
millions of acres cast of the Connecticut, not embraced in 
Mason's patent, or line sixty miles from the sea, depended on 
the decision, and might be lost to the State. As a lawyer, and 
most familiar with the evidence, it was important he should 
be there to defend the case, not as paid counsel, but as a 
Member of Congress. He argued it on different points of the 
questions involved on more than twenty different occasions 
against the ablest counsel opposed to him, and accomplished 
the main object, the preservation to New Hampshire of its 
fifty-four townships, Vermont being left where it belonged to 
the inhabitants, neither New York nor New Hampshire being 
able to show any valid claim. 

It was a busy session, and he took his full share of the 
debates and on committees. In reorganizing the finances 
and establishing the Bank of America, in instituting reforms 
in the army and civil administration, which instilled fresh 
vigor into the cause, he was active and energetic ; and what 
was done that year at Pliiladelphia rendered possible the 
success, which the next in the Southern campaign and at 
Yorktown secured independence. His influence also mate- 
rially aided to quell the mutinous spirit in the army, being 
chairman of the committee to bring back to their allegiance 
the Pennsylvania line. If he had deserted a post where he 
was useful from any false pride or delicacy or fear of miscon- 
struction, he would have deserved the censure the. historian 



19 

seems eager to attach to him. At the close of a letter to 
Luzerne, January 13, 1781, giving an account of the revolt 
and its termination, he says : " One circumstance ought not to 
be omitted which, in my judgment, does the insurgents much 
honor. When they delivered up the British emissaries. Gov- 
ernor Reed offered them one hundred golden guineas, -which 
they refused, saying that what they did was only a duty they 
owed to their country, and that they neither wanted nor would 
receive any reward but the approbation of that country for 
which they had so often fought and bled." It is difficult to 
believe that General Sullivan would have used this language 
had he been conscious of any impropriety on his part, or 
addressed it to Luzerne, to whom it would have been a tacit 
reproach, if the minister had been guilty of what the historian 
imputes, an attempt to bribe him to be faithless. 

Unless convinced that his back pay and advances could have 
been relied upon to meet the unavoidable expenses attending 
his residence in Philadelphia, he doubtless would have persisted 
in declining a position in which pecuniary favors, even from 
a friend, might compromise his delicacy, shackle his inde- 
pendence, or to ungenerous minds afford a handle for miscon- 
struction or misrepresentation. 

Their payment was deferred not from any doubt as to their 
validity and justice, — the committee in September, 1781, allowed 
more than he asked for his advances, — but in consequence of 
the exhausted state of its treasury and inability on the part 
of the government. Left wholly without resources, if Luzerne, 
who, as there seems reason to believe from the above notice 
of him, was noble and generous, and with whom his late rank 
in the army, knowledge of French, and personal qualities led 
naturally to an intimacy, was willing to extend him his aid, 
it was his right to accept it, and no honorable mind familiar 
with his condition would think of making it a reproach. 
Application by the descendants of General Sullivan to the his- 
torian for a statement of the evidence on which he grounds 
his allegation, resulted in his reply that it was on a circum- 
stantial report from Luzerne to Vergennes, without stating what 
that report was. 



20 

Upon a second application for the proofs if he had any of 
the charge, they were informed that, if a copyist were sent to 
the house of the historian in Washington, a copy could be 
talvcn. This is now submitted to the public, with the confident 
assertion that it in no measure or degree sustains the 
charge that he was in the pay of Luzerne, unless the accept- 
ance of a loan voluntarily offered in his distress, unattended 
by any other condition, expectation, or tacit understanding, 
except of repayment when he had the means, warrants the 
expression used. There is not the slightest evidence of cor- 
ruption or any improper or indelicate act or motive, but di- 
rectly of the reverse. The whole tenor of the letter throughout 
proves him thoroughly faithful to every obligation, honest and 
true, inaccessible to any corrupt influence, fearless of whom 
he offended in the discharge of his congressional duty, 
devoted to the cause of independence, unswerving in his 
fidelity to his State and country. It proves that in the darkest 
day of the struggle, when success seemed more than ever 
remote, and failure involved confiscation and perhaps death 
on the scaffold for the leaders, no proffers of rank or wealth 
as a reward for returning to his allegiance to Great Britain 
were the slightest temptation to him. If he had entertained 
for a moment the propositions of General Clinton, he certainly 
would not have selected the representative of France for his 
confident. The translation of the document has been made 
by one who had resided many years in France, and was printed 
under the supervision of the publishing committee of the Mas- 
sachusetts Historical Society. The letter is as follows : — 

Lettre de 31. de la Luzerne a M. de Vergennes. 

Philadelphia, le 13 mai 1781. 
MoNSEiGNEUR, — Lorsque la malle tiux lettres de Philadelphia fut 
interceptee I'annee dernicre et que les Anglais publiorent quelques- 
uues de celles qu'ils y avaient ti-ouvees, j'en remarquai una d'un Dclegu^ 
qui se plaignait du denilment ou son Etat le laissait et de la cherte de 
toutes les clioses necessaires a la vie dans Philadelpliia, et j'eus I'lionneur 
de vous en euvoyer la traduction. Des cettc epoquc il me parut necessaire 
d'ouvrir ma bourse a ce Delegue, dont TEnncmi connaissait les besoins 



21 

par sa propre confession, et sous I'apparence d'un pret, je lui reinis 68 
guinees 4 septieraes. Une seconde malle interceptee a mis les Anglais 
en possession d'une lettre qui lui est adressee par le Tresorier de son 
Etat et qu'ils ont imprimee. Elle est egalement relative a des besoins 
pecuniaires. Le G'i' Clinton a soup^onne qu'un homme aussi presse 
d'argent pouvait etre dispose a se laisser corrompre, et comnie il avait 
un frere prisonnier a New Yorck, il a permis a ce dernier de venir a 
Philadelphia sous pretexte de solliciter son echange ; le Delegue est 
venu me trouver et m'a confie que son frere lui avait remis une lettre 
non signee mais qu'il a reconnu h I'ecriture pour etre du Colonel 
Anglais qui est actuellement a New Yorck. " L'auteur de cette lettre," 
m'a-t-il dit, "apres s'etre etendu sur les ressources de I'Angleterre, sur 
les moyens qu'elle a de soumettre a la fin I'Amerique, me fait de grands 
complimens sur mes lumieres, mes talens et I'estime que les Anglais 
ont congu pour moi, il ajoute qu'ils me regardent comme I'homme le 
plus propre a moyenner uue reconciliation entre la Mere patrie et les 
Colonies Anglaises et qu'ils desirent que je leur expose mon sentiment 
sur cette matiere, que toutes les ouvertures de ma part seraient re9ues 
avec la reconnaissance qu'elles meritent, que je n'ai qu'a dire ce que je 
desire, que la personne qui m'ecrit a tout pouvoir d'ouvrir une negocia- 
tion jDarticuliere avec moi, et que je puis compter sur le plus profond 
secret. J'ai repondu a mon frere avec toute I'indignation que m'in- 
spirait de pareiUes avances, j'ai jete devant lui la lettre au feu, et 
lorsqu'il est parti pour New Yorck je I'ai prie de temoigner a ceux qui 
I'envoyaient que leurs offres avaient ete regues avec le plus profond 
mepris. J'ai cependant garde le silence vis-a-vis du Congres sur I'aventure, 
soit pour ne pas compromettre mon frere, soit pour ne pas faire parade de 
mon desinteressement, soit parceque j'ai trouve dangereux d'annoncer 
avec trop d'authenticite a mes Collegues que I'Ennemi cherche un traitre 
parmi eux, et que sa recompense est prete ; mais j'ai cru devoir vous 
confier ces details afin de vous mettre en garde contre les intrigues de 
I'Ennemi jusques dans le sein du Congres parceque s'ils ont ose faire 
de pareilles offres a moi, dont I'attachement a la bonne cause est aussi 
generalement connu, il n'est que trop possible qu'ils en aient fait a 
d'autres qui ne viendront point vous en faire part." Le fond de cette 
confidence m'a paru vrai, Mgr., mais je ne suis pas aussi persuade 
que ce Delegue ait charge son frere de porter a New Yorck une 
reponse, aussi here et aussi insultante pour les Anglais qu'il me 
I'assure. II m'a meme fait une proposition tout a fait singuliere, c'est 
de feindre de preter I'oreille aux ouvertures qui lui sont faites, d'en- 



22 

voycr un homme aflide h. New Yorck demander au G";' Clinton un 
projet de conciliation, en ajoutant qu'il n'a pas voulu se servir du 
miuistore de son fiere parcequ'il craint son attachen^ent a I'independance. 
Je trouve, m'a-t-il dit divers avantages a sender de la sorte les disposi- 
tions des Anglais afia de connaitre quel pent etre leur plan de corrup- 
tion et de savoir jusqu'oii ils se proposent d'aller dans leurs concessions, 
et il m'a nommc quatrc membres du Congres, auxquels il se proposait 
de confier son projet avaut de I'executer, et qui sont tous gens d'un 
caractere eprouvc. 

Le Delegue jouit lui-meme d'une excellcnte reputation et je 
repugne infiniraent a soup^onner qu'il voudrait me faire servir de 
moteiir a une correspondance avec I'ennemi ; mais il m'a si souvent 
parl6 des pertes que la revolution lui a occasionnees, il regrette si 
amereraent son ancienne aisance, que j'ai craint pour lui la tentation 
h laquelle il voulait s'exposer, et je n'ai pas balance a le detourner du 
projet en lui exposant sans ddguisement les grands inconveniens qu'il 
entraiiie. II ne m'a pas promis formellement d'y renoncer, mais, si 
malgre les representations que je me suis propose de lui reiterer, il y 
persistait je surveillerais de si pres sa conduite, que j'espere decouvrir 
tout ce qu'clle aura de bonte. Au reste je I'ai constammcnt bien 
dispose a etre tres conliant, et c'est a lui toujours que j'attribue la rup- 
ture de la ligue formee par les Etats de I'Est, ligue, qui par de fausses 
iJees de popularite, de libertu et par une jalousie excessive de I'armee 
et du G"".' en Chef a longtemps arretc les mesurcs les plus urgcntes et 
qui en nombre d'occasions s'est montrce egalement jalouse de nos 
avantages ct de notre influence. II jouit do beaucoup de consideration 
dans son Etat, il cut le credit de le determiner a se declarer pour 
I'independance en 1776. C'est le seul Etat qui n'ait pas encore fixe 
sa forme de Gouvernement, et comme ce retard a de grands incon- 
veniens, et laisse aux mal intentionnes I'esperance de voir le retablis- 
semcnt du Gouvernement Anglais, il m'a promis des qu'il y retournera 
d'employer tout son credit sur le peuple pour I'cngager a se donuer une 
constitution. 

J'ignore combien de temps il doit encore rester dans le Congres, 
mais j' li pense que vous ne dcsapprouverez pas que je fisse Folfre que 
jo. lui ai fait I'annee deriiiere, aussi longtemps qu'il sera Delegue, et ma 
proposition a cte tres bien accueillie. Dans toutes les suppositions il 
est iiiteressaut de le manager. II est bien facheux que plusieurs autres 
Delegues se trouvcnt dans une situation encore plus necessitante. 
Ceux du Sud, dont les Etats £ont envahis, n'ont d'autre ressource que de 



recevoir du Congres un traitement pour leur Subsistance, et ce traite- 
ment est si borne que I'un d'eux qui a ete precedemcnt Gouverneur 
de Georgie est rediiit a soustraire sa femme de la societe, faute d'habits 
sous lesquelles clle puissc paraitre decerament. 

Cette tentative des Anglais m'a donne occasion de demauder au 
Dek'giie a qui ils se sont adresses, si la longne habitude qu'il a du 
Congres ct la maniere de voter de ses collegues lui avaicnt donne lieu 
de soup(;onner quelqu'un d'eux de corruption, il m'a indique celui 
centre lequel j'ai d'ancieus soup(;ons et un autre dont le caractere lui 
parait cgalement doutcux ; mais a ces deux exceptions pres, il croit le 
Congres compose de gens d'un caractere siir et inaccessible a la seduc- 
tion. 

Je joins ici Mgr. la traduction d'un pamphlet publie centre IM. 
Duane membre du Congres pour New Yorck, le jour mSme ou ce 
Delegue a quitte Philadelphia pour se rendre dans son Etat. II a ete 
insere dans une Gazette dont le Redactenr a annonce qu'il encherissait 
sur ses Collegues quant a la licence avec laquelle leurs papiers sont 
ecrits, et que la torture seule ou la formalite de lois lui arracherait les 
noms de ceux qui se serviraient de son journal pour publier leurs pro- 
ductions. On attribue I'ecrit dont il s'agit a Mr. le Gouverneur Morris, 
qui avait Siege dans cette assemblee jusqu'a la fin de 1779 comma 
Delegue de ce meme Etat. Les faits allegues sont reconnus vrais, 
mais je crois que Mr. Duane a depuis longtemps abandonne les prin- 
cipes equivoques qui ont regie sa conduite pendant les premieres 
annees de cette revolution, et je I'ai trouve constamment attach^ a 
I'independance. 

J'attendrai vos ordres Mgr. pour porter les avances dont il est 
question dans cette Depeche sur mes etats de depenses extraordinaires. 
Le Sr. Payne dont j'ai eu I'honneur de vous parler precedemment et 
sur qui je pensais qu'on pourrait jeter les yeux pour ecrire I'histoire de 
la revolution actuelle, est passe en France au mois de fevrier dernier 
sur la fregate V Alliance. 

Les deux vaisseaux expedies de Cadix avec des habits pour I'armee 
Americaine sont heureusement arrives a Boston. 

Je suis & & 
Sio-ne Le Ch. de la Luzerne. 

Le Delegue dont il s'agit au Commencement de cette depeche, 
Mgr. est le General Sullivan qui represente au Congres I'Etat de New 
Hampshire. 



24 



The same in English. 

Philadelphia, May 13, 1781. 

Mr Lord, — "When the Philadelphia mail was intercepted last 
year, and the English published some of the letters which they found 
in it, I noticed one from a delegate, who complained of the destitute 
condition in which he was left by his State, and of the dearness of all 
necessaries of life in Philadelphia, and I had the honor to send you a 
translation of it. From this time, it seemed to me necessary to open 
my purse to this delegate, whose wants the enemy knew by his own 
confession ; and, under the semblance of a loan,* I advanced him 68 
guineas and 4 sevenths. A second intercepted mail put the English 
into possession of a letter addressed to him by the Treasurer of his 
State, which they have printed. It also relates to his pecuniaiy needs. 
General Clinton suspected that a man so pressed for money might be 
open to corruption ; and as he had a brother, a prisoner in New York, 
he allowed the latter to come to Philadelphia, under pretext of solicit- 
ing his exchange.! The delegate came to me, and confided to me that 
his brother had given him a letter, not signed, but which he recognized 
by the handwriting to be from an English colonel who is now in New 
York. " The author of this letter," he said to me, " after expatiating 
upon the resources of England and the means she possesses of subju- 
gating America finally, pays me great compliments upon my intelli- 
gence, talents, and upon the esteem in Avhich I am held by the English, 
and adds that they look upon me as the most proper person to bring 
about a reconciliation between the mother country and the English 
colonies, and they desire me to make known to them my sentiments 
in the matter ; that all overtures on my part will be received with the 
gratitude which they deserve ; that I have only to give expression to 
my wishes ; that the person who writes to me has full power to open 

* So far as General Sullivan was concerned, this implies that it was offered 
as a loan and accepted as a loan. If then or later no return was expected by 
M. Luzerne, there is no evidence or reason to believe that General Sullivan did 
not intend to return it, or that he did not actually do so. 

t As Daniel Sullivan was loyal throughout to the cause of independence, and 
his life sacrificed to it in the Jersey hulks, he was not likely to have been 
party or privy to Clinton's " pretext." What General Sullivan proposed as a 
reason to be assigned to Clinton for employing a trusty person other tlian Daniel, 
that he fears his attachment to independence, sliows he could not have had 
knowledge of the contents of the letter from New York before it was opened or 
of tlie proposition it contained. 



25 

a private negotiation with me ; and that I may count upon the most 
profound secrecy. I answered my brother with all the indignation which 
such advances were calculated to inspire. I threw the letter into the 
fire before him, and, when he left for New York, I begged him to de- 
clare to those who sent him that their offers had been received with 
the most profound contempt. I said nothing to Congress about this 
affair, partly not to compromise my brother, partly not to make a parade 
of my disinterestedness, partly because it seemed dangerous to an- 
nounce with too much confidence to my colleagues that the enemy 
sought a traitor among them and that his recompense was ready. But 
I thought it my duty to confide to you these details, in order to put you 
upon your guard against the intrigues which the enemy is carrying 
into the very centre of Congress ; because if they dared make such 
offers to me, whose attachment to the good cause is so generally known, 
it is only too possible that they have made them to others who may 
not come forward to tell you of them." 

What he confided to me has seemed substantially true, my Lord, 
but I am not as convinced that this delegate charged his brother to 
carry to New York so proud and insulting a reply to the English as 
he said he had done. He even made me a very singular proposition : 
it was to feign to listen to the overtures which were made to him, 
to send to New York a trusty messenger to ask from General Clin- 
ton a plan of reconciliation, in adding * that he did not wish to avail 
himself of the intervention of his brother, because he fears his attach- 
ment to Independence. " I find," said he to me, '• several advantages 
in sounding in this way the disposition of the English, so as to know 
what may be their plan of corruption, and to know how far tiiey pro- 
pose to carry their concessions ; " and he named to me four members 
of Congress, to whom he thought of confiding his plan before putting 
it in execution, and who are all persons of approved character. 

The delegate himself enjoys an excellent reputation, and it is ex- 
ceedingly repugnant to me to suspect that he wished to involve me in 
a correspondence with the enemy ; but he has so often spoken to me of 

* " En ajoutant " should be translated " in adding." "What follows, " that he 
fears his brother's attacliment to independence," is not meant for Luzerne, but as 
the reason to be assigned to Clinton in New York for not negotiating through 
Daniel. It would be absurd to suppose that General Sulhvan was proposing 
to the French minister wliat would sliock his brother's sense of what was proper 
and honorable. It is not probable that the idea of any sucli communication 
with Clinton was ever seriously entertained. 

4 



26 

the losses which he has met with by the Revolution, he regrets so bit- 
terly his former competency, that I have feared for him the temptation 
to which he wished to expose himself, and I have not hesitated to divert 
him from the plan by showing him plainly the great inconveniences 
that it would entail. He has not formally promised me to renounce it ; 
but if, m spite of the views that I intend again to present to him, he 
should persist, I will watch his course so closely that I shall hope to 
discover all that is good in it. As to the rest, I have always found him 
disposed to be very confiding, and it is to him that I always attrib- 
ute the rupture of the league formed by the Eastern States ; a league 
which, by false ideas of popularity, of liberty, and by an excessive 
jealousy of the Army and of the General-in-Chief, has for so long a 
time delayed the most urgent measures, and which on numerous occa- 
sions has shown itself equally jealous of our advantages and of our 
influence. He enjoys much consideration in his State, and had the 
credit of determining it to declare for Independence in 1776. This 
is the only State which has not yet fixed upon its form of Govern- 
ment ; and as this delay has great inconveniences, and leaves to the 
badly intentioned the hope of seeing the re-establishment of the Eng- 
lish Government, he has promised upon his return to use all his credit 
with the people to induce them to give themselves a constitution. 

I do not know how much time he has yet to remain in Congress, 
but I thought you would not disapprove my making him the same 
offer that I made him last year, as long as he remains a delegate ; and 
ray proposition has been very well received.* At all events, it is desira- 
ble to treat him with consideration. It is much to be regretted that 
several other delegates find themselves in a still more necessitous con- 
dition. Those from the South, where the States are invaded, have no 
other resource than to receive from Congress an allowance for their 
subsistence, and this allowance is so limited that one of the delegates, 
who was formerly Governor of Georgia, is obliged to withdraw his wife 
from society for want of attire in which she could suitably appear. 

This attempt of the English has given me the opportunity of asking 

* The loan was made in the autumn of 1780. As he served but one year, 
the occasion did not arrive for the second one being made. Tiie amount was 
so nearly identical with what he was to receive from his State that this, tliere 
seems reason to presume, li.\ed the amount. New Hampshire had no regular 
government or ta.xes. Money was probably contributed by those best off for 
public purposes. Tiie entry on his account, in which he states the receipt 
of $202, has no date attached to it, and may not have been before his return 
home in September, 1781. 



27 

the delegate to whom they have applied if the long acquaintance he 
has had with Congress, and the manner of voting among his colleagues, 
has led him to suspect any of them of corruption. He pointed out to 
me one against whom I had some old suspicions, and another whose 
character appeared to him equally doubtful ; but with perhaps these 
two exceptions he felt sure that the Congress was composed of persons 
of trustworthy character and inaccessible to corruption. 

I transmit, my Lord, the translation of a pamphlet against Mr. Duane, 
member of Congress for New York, published the very day that this 
delegate left Philadelphia to go to his own State. It has been in- 
serted in a Gazette whose Editor has announced that he valued con- 
tributors according to the license with which they had written, and 
that torture alone, or the formality of the law, should draw from him 
the names of those who should use his journal to publish their produc- 
tions. The article now in question is said to be by Gouverneur Mor- 
ris, who sat in this assembly till the end of 1779 as delegate from 
this same State. The alleged facts are acknowledged to be true, but 
I think that Mr. Duane has long since abandoned the equivocal prin- 
ciples which guided him during the first years of the Revolution, and 
I have found him always attached to Independence. 

I shall await your orders, my Lord, to enter the advances spoken 
of in this despatch upon my account of extraordinarj'^ expenses. Mr. 
Paine, of whom I have had the honor to speak to you before, and 
to whom I have thought all might look to write the history of the 
present Revolution, left for France last February, iu the frigate 
" Alliance." 

The two vessels sent from Cadiz with clothing for the Americaa 
army have arrived safely in Boston. 

I am, &c., &c., 
Signed, The Chevalier de la Luzerne. 

The delegate of whom I spoke at the beginning of this despatch, 
my Lord, is General Sullivan, who represents in Congress the State 
of New Hampshire. 

That he should have stood in need of peciniiary assistance, 
in 1780, in Philadelphia was no discredit to him. He had 
expended all his available means in the service of the country ; 
that country owed him five thousand dollars, of which he had 
reason to expect payment of a part certainly at an early day. 



28 

The army was ten months in arrear ; currency seventy to one 
in silver. The resources of the country were exhausted ; Wash- 
ington writes, there was not money enough in the treasury to 
pay for an express : and that he should have been in a 
straitened condition, and at a loss to procure food and raiment, 
was his misfortune and not his fault. The whole tenor of his 
conduct in private and public relations was upright and honor- 
able, and his life may safely challenge the most searching 
scrutiny for any transaction to justify the character which the 
historian would attach to this loan. 

After the arduous campaign of 1777, of Brandywine and 
Germantown, when the army settled down at Valley Forge, 
General Sullivan requested a furlough in January, 1778, for 
the reason that his means were exhausted, his raiment in rags, 
and he wished to go home to replenish them. Waslnngton 
felt compelled to withhold his consent, as there were not gen- 
eral officers enough in camp for the ordinary routine of duty. 
Later, when this objection was removed, he renewed his appli- 
cation, stating his needs, and that his pay for a month, such 
was the depreciation, was not sufficient for the expenses of a 
day. His second appeal was favorably received, and in March 
he was appointed to command the military department of 
Rhode Island at Providence. 

Marbois, in his " Treason of Arnold," has given us the reply of 
Luzerne to that General, when he sought help to pay his debts, 
urging as an inducement the service he could render in return 
to the French government. These sentiments are in character 
with what is known of Luzerne and with those of his letter to 
Vcrgennes. There is not a single expression to intimate a 
wish or intent to corrupt. It is difficult indeed to conceive 
of any assignable motive for the French government or its 
ministers to desire to corrupt the Congress. France and 
America were one in the war. Tiiey had no separate objects 
or conflicting interests. Louis XVI. had expressly that very 
year disclaimed any wish to recover Canada, unless for the 
Americans. In a contest of which the strength essentially 
consisted in character and moral force, it would have been 



29 

suicidal to ■weaken public confidence by exposing to suspicion 
those who possessed it. France was at this time not only- 
fighting our battles, sending us arms and raiment, lending and 
giving us money, and guaranteeing our loans, but actually 
paying from her treasury our ministers abroad. But this loan 
to Sullivan was not from France, but from the minister at his 
own motion and from his own private purse who did not men- 
tion it to Vergennes till six months afterwards, May 13, 1781, 
and then asks permission under the circumstances to charge 
it on account of his extraordinary expenses. When Sullivan 
accepted the loan, he had reason to expect to be able soon to 
repay it, but the poverty of the treasury prevented his obtain- 
ing what was due to him, and Luzerne had perhaps become, 
with reason, doubtful of repayment. In the absence of any 
proof to the contrary, there seems every reason to presume 
that Sullivan duly paid back what was thus kindly advanced. 
He received it as a loan, and there is no evidence he accepted 
it as a gift, or so considered it, certainly none as a bribe ; and 
the assertion that he was in the pay of Luzerne, and that it 
influenced his vote, is a wholly gratuitous aspersion on his 
integrity, a violence to language and violation of truth. His 
pay as Major-general, Attorney-general, President of the State, 
federal judge, was small. His depreciation, about five thousand 
dollars, was allowed him in 1787 ; his lands and mills became 
valuable after the peace : but his expenses were large, his hos- 
pitalities bountiful, and when he died he left the estate at Dur- 
batn, but little else, to his family. But this does not prove he 
did not repay the sixty-eight guineas to Luzerne. 

The allusion to better days, in contrast with his then strait- 
ened condition not understood by Luzerne, seems susceptible of 
easy explanation. It does not necessarily imply that General 
Sullivan repined at sacrifices he doubtless cheerfully accepted 
with his countrymen as the price of liberty. He may have 
been simply paying an indirect compliment to the minister 
whose hospitality and festal entertainments were the one cheer- 
ing incident in the social life of Philadelphia at that gloomy 
period ; or possibly apologizing for attire not up to the occasion 



30 

or in character with the splendors that surrounded liim ; or, 
what is yet more natural, for the reduced condition which com- 
pelled him to accept a pecuniary favor by this loan thus kindly 
proffered. He was frank and outspoken, and what he said was 
not intended for history ; and there is no reason to believe that 
any candid mind will give it an ungenerous or unwarranted 
construction. 

Luzerne expresses a doubt if the response sent by his brother 
Daniel to Clinton was as proud and offensive as described. 
But a few months before, Arnold had sold himself to the 
English for thirty thousand pounds and other like considera- 
tions ; and the sentiment among the Americans towards him 
would have naturally created a lively sense of indignation in 
any honorable mind at this attempt to tamper. Daniel Sulli- 
van, after being engaged in the siege of Castine, was taken, in 
February, 1780, from his bed at Sullivan in Maine, by Mowatt, 
who burnt Falmouth in 1775. In an English frigate entering 
Frenchman's Bay, he burnt Daniel's house, the family being 
driven out into the snow, took him to Castine, endeavored to 
induce him to swear allegiance to the king, and upon his refusal 
carried him to New York, where he was imprisoned in the Jersey 
hulks, and, when released a few months after this visit to Phila- 
delphia, he died, it is said of poison, on the Sound on his way 
home. 

The response Gen. Sullivan made to Clinton's proposition, 
the disposition of the letter, his selection of his confidant, all 
proved his good sense, right feeling, and integrity of character. 
That no evidence exists in the letter of Luzerne that he com- 
municated this attempt to corrupt him to his associates in Con- 
gress, is no proof that no such communication was made. It 
probably was made to his more intimate friends. The proposi- 
tion to draw Clinton into a correspondence, with the knowledge 
of four of the most trusty and respected members of Congress, 
was thrown out in the freedom of friendly intercourse, without 
fear of misapprehension, and was probably not very seriously 
contemplated for a moment, and dismissed without a second 
thought. It should serve as a caution to public characters to 



31 

weigh their words in conversation with foreign ministers, whose 
correspondence home, after slumbering for ages in its appropri- 
ate sepulchres, may be exhumed by historians to work preju- 
dice not deserved. The letter of Luzerne, so far from proving 
that Sullivan was in his pay by borrowing from him three 
hundred dollars, which he offered of his own accord, is honor- 
able to Sullivan throughout. We do not claim any credit for 
him for not yielding to Clinton's attempt to corrupt him. 
Though penniless, with some reason to feel he had been un- 
kindly dealt with by Congress, though the cause was well-nigh 
lost by exhaustion and discouragement, and he may well have 
anticipated confiscation and possibly death as the consequence 
of its failure, it was no temptation to him, and he certainly 
was not likely to sell his integrity to Luzerne for a few hun- 
dred dollars, if it had not been a gratuitous insult to the 
memory of that minister to suppose him capable of any partici- 
pation in any such transaction. 

In history as in morals, suppression of the truth is near akin 
to suggestion of what is not. If descendants or kindred of 
historical personages have no rights historians are bound to 
respect, readers of history certainly have a claim not to be mis- 
led ; and historical societies are bound to further the cause of 
the truth in historical relations. It signifies little what view 
any one author may entertain of the public services of the 
dead, who cannot vindicate their fame when unjustly aspersed ; 
but, where his position enables him to convey erroneous im- 
pressions, societies and individuals should listen without 
impatience and without favor, with entire impartiality, till 
both sides have been heard. 

In some other passages of the lately published volume, occa- 
sion is taken to present views not borne out by the evidence 
with regard to General Sullivan. It is stated that in the 
Rhode Island campaign in 1778, Sullivan for a whim detained 
for ten days the French fleet in the ofling. In his first letter 
to D'Estaing, upon his arrival, — the copy is not dated, — he 
states his reasons for wishing the larger part of the fleet to 
block up the middle channel between Rhode Island and Conan- 



32 

icut, were to prevent re-enforcements from New York, to keep 
out the British fleet, to co-operate with the force that was to 
pass up the West Channel to turn Conanicut and prevent 
three British regiments on that island from passing over to 
Newport. This was not a whim, but good sense, and the 
historian had access to this letter which explained them. 
Even in this Sullivan did not dictate, but l6ft it to D'Estaing's 
own judgment to determine what was best. 

The admiral, in his letters, assigns three other reasons for 
remaining where he was until the arrival of the American 
re-enforcements should justify an attack. His fleet, farther up 
the channel, would be exposed to the fire of the batteries, 
which could inflict more damage upon his vessels than he 
could upon them. In the anticipation of a possible attack 
from Howe and Byron, it was important to keep control of his 
fleet, which, as the south wind generally prevails at Newport 
in summer, he would lose higher up, and his laying off" Beaver- 
Tail, blockading the middle channel, would prevent the garri- 
son escaping. This last consideration loses force as the event 
fell short of expectation ; but if an attack could have been 
made by the combined forces of D'Estaing and Sullivan the 
place must have surrendered. 

All the arrangements for landing on the island were based 
upon the British retaining Butt's Hill, about one hundred and 
eighty feet high, strongly fortified at the north end of the island 
commanding the passage from Tiverton, the best place to cross. 
As soon as they abandoned it, Sullivan crossed over, and took 
possession early on the morning of the 9th of August. D'Estaing 
had written him two days before that he proposed to land when 
he had an opportunity without waiting for him. Any one who 
knows the island must realize that if with such a force any 
crossing was to be effected, the opportunity to do so unopposed 
was not to be hazarded by delay. It is inconceivable that Sul- 
livan should not have sought to communicate the fact of his 
crossing the earliest possible moment to D'Estaing. He did so. 
Lafayette went to the fleet that morning, whilst one part of the 
army intended to co-operate with D'Estaing remained still at 
Tiverton. 



33 

That day the fleet of Howe hove in sight, and on the next 
morning D'Estaing bore down upon it; but the English admiral 
drew him off the coast, probably to open the gate for re-enforce- 
ments to Newport. When on the 20tli his fleet returned in a 
shattered condition, Greene and Lafayette, going on board, 
endeavored in vain to persuade him to remain. The moment 
liope could no longer be reasonably entertained of co-operation, 
orders were given by General Sullivan to fortify Butt's Hill 
and Howfand's ferry, and that other measures should be taken 
for withdrawing from the island. The volunteers had become 
restless, and many of them had already left. It was necessary 
to proceed with caution ; for, in the event of a panic, the safety 
of the army would have been endangered. If numerically 
stronger, — Sullivan had less than eight thousand men; the 
garrison of Newport consisted of about seven thousand, for the 
most part veterans well officered and organized ; a large propor- 
tion of the American troops had been hastily levied since the 
middle of July, undrilled, poorly armed, only fifteen hundred 
having ever been in action. 

While taking every step to ensure a safe and speedy re- 
treat, a bold front was presented to the enemy ; and the general 
orders of the twenty-fourth, after impressing upon his army the 
importance of not allowing the departure of the French fleet to 
discourage them, expressed a hope that they might be able to 
procure by their own arms what their allies refused their assist- 
ance in obtaining. On the twenty- sixth, while disclaiming any 
intention of givin-g offence to their allies, he expressed the 
wish that they might speedily return to carry out the enterprise. 
Certainly, under no other compulsion than his own good sense 
and consideration for others he cheerfully endeavored to remove 
on this occasion, as on many another in his life, sensitiveness 
from expressions he had felt bound to use under tlie existing 
conditions, and which had wounded undue susceptibility. Our 
own army and the country had cause to feel not only disap- 
pointed but provoked at the posture of affairs. Had D'Estaing 
on his return consented to stay forty-eight hours, Newport 
would have been taken. 



34 

In the army were many of the most influential men of New 
England, of its best and bravest, who had left their work and 
their employments with confidence of success from the encour- 
agement held out by Prance. They had made extraordinary 
eiforts and been at great cost. To keep them in good heart 
and willing to remain till they could withdraw in safety from 
the island was the main consideration, and this was best to be 
accomplished by giving expression to their prevailing sentiment. 
Whoever scans without prejudice either of the general orders, 
of the 2-lth or 26th, must admit that they were eminently 
calculated to produce the state of feeling the occasion demanded, 
of reliance upon themselves in the first moment of abandonment, 
of due acknowledgment to France for services rendered to the 
cause as well as confidence in her continued co-operation. Gen- 
eral Sullivan's own letter to D'Estaing contained no word of 
irritation, and the protest that followed was an exact statement 
of the case, and the French officers, in taking umbrage at its 
freedom, were unduly sensitive. If they had acted upon its sen- 
sible conclusions, instead of losing temper, Newport would have 
fallen, and the war possibly have come to an end. Sullivan 
had but little time in the pressure of events to cull words or 
phrases, but only the maligner can find in what is left of his 
correspondence of those busy weeks any thing to criticise or 
censure. 

Sullivan is criticised for fortifying Honeyman's Hill with a 
redoubt. All may not be familiar with the ground ; but the 
hill one hundred and eighty feet in elevation, and the highest 
point at the southerly part of the island, was just two miles from 
the extreme left of the British outer line beyond Miantonomi 
Hill, and a like distance from the extreme right of its inner 
line at Easton Beach. The salient point of the British outer 
line at Bliss Hill was within half a mile of Honeyman's, and the 
fire of the American works compelled Pigot to draw farther 
back. Honeyman's Hill could not be turned ; and, in case of 
re-enforcements to the garrison and any disaster compelling 
withdrawal from the island, it would have formed a rallying 
point. It communicated by a straight road running north to 



35 

the east road, the direct line to Butt's Hill, and also with the 
east passage, in case it were found worth while to cross lower 
down, boats at Tiverton being near enough to be available for 
that purpose anywhere along the shore. 

The historian is of course wiser than Gridley or Gouvion, 
two of the most distinguished engineers of the war, when he 
complains that batteries were raised too remote to be of use. 
The most distant was half a mile from the outer lines of the 
enemy, and Pigot admits that their fiie compelled him to 
withdraw his troops. It must be remembered that it was 
the 23d of August before all hope of co-operation was relin- 
quished, indeed not altogether then, and it was not prudent to 
acquaint the enemy by discontinuing the approaches that the 
siege was given up. Of the five general officers consulted on 
that day nearly all counselled an attack on the enemy's lines 
if opportunity offered. But Sullivan, whilst prepared for such 
an event, sent over his heavy guns and stores, and fortified 
Howland's and Bristol ferry. It was on the 28th that the 
departure of three thousand of the militia and volunteers whose 
terms of enlistment were expired reduced his strength so that 
the expectation of any such chance occurring was given up, and 
that day the Americans, without precipitation, removed to 
Butt's Hill at the north end of the island. 

If the author had known much of what was usual among 
gentlemen and generals at that period, he would have realized 
that General Washington was too much of both to send incessant 
messages to quit the island. Sullivan commanded a separate 
department, responsible to Congress and the Board of War as 
well as to the Commander-in-chief, and all of them while giving 
information and advice would naturally have left the decision 
of what was most prudent to the officer in command. Letters 
were two or three days on the road between White Plains and 
Newport. 

Washington wrote on the 23d to inform Sullivan that one 
hundred and fifty vessels were collected near Frog's Point, and 
possibly destined for Newport, and that he must be upon his 
guard ; that he does not doubt that every precaution will be 



36 

taken to secure the passage across to the mahi on any emer- 
gency ; at the same time he is persuaded that he will not suffer 
any ill-founded or premature alarm to produce any change in 
his dispositions which may impair or frustrate the enterprise. 
On the 29th he says that the day before he had written to say that 
a number of transports were in the sound, and were then at 
Oyster Bay, detained by the wind ; that a large body of troops 
had been embarked upon them from Long Island, and it was 
rumored that they numbered five thousand men, and Sir Henry 
Clinton was with them. Sullivan was already making all due 
despatch in order to leave the island without sacrifice of his 
valuable stores of provisions, arms, and munitions of war, which 
had been collected there. He was daily apprised of all that 
it concerned him to know. When the letter of the 29th reached 
him he had already quitted the island, and the uncourteous 
language indulged by the historian conveys a censure altogether 
undeserved. The admirable letter of General Greene to John 
Brown bears witness to the prudence, sagacity, and energy of 
General Sullivan throughout the campaign, and Congress con- 
firmed the justice of his conclusions by their vote of thanks. 

Sullivan is said to have been unduly importunate for supplies 
for the Indian expedition of 1779. His force when Clinton 
was ready, and he could not start before, left Wyoming twenty- 
one hundred strong on the 31st of July, and Clinton joined 
them at Tioga on the 22d of August. Their united forces, 
about thirty-six hundred, discovered on the 29th the Indians 
with their British allies in a well-fortified position at Newtown. 
They were less actually in number than there was reason to 
believe. The fort was on the declivity of a hill with the water 
in front and forming a bend around it. To have made an 
assault from the space between the water and the hill would 
have exposed the army to disadvantage ; and the object was, if 
possible, to capture the enemy with little loss. He despatched 
a force under Clinton and Poor to attack them in the rear from 
the hills above and surround them ; but its progress was obsti- 
nately disputed, and the enemy, better acquainted with the 
ground, eflccted their escape. 



37 

Wasliington, on the 15th January, 1779, wrote Sullivan that 
as no reasonable expectation could be entertained of collecting 
sufficient forces for an attack to advantage on New York or 
Rhode Island, and the invasion of Canada was too hazardous 
and expensive, he advised that the efficiency of the army should 
be increased by discipline and organization rather than by num- 
bers and that by improving the condition of officers and soldiers 
the service should be rendered popular. In this Sullivan was 
disposed of course to aid, and, in the opinion of a good judge in 
military matters, the instructions given by General Sullivan to 
his officers, the order of march he prescribed to his troops, and 
the discipline he had the ability to maintain, would have done 
honor to the most experienced general. 

He maintained good discipline in his camp, and firing the 
morning gun as customary, when omitted, would have been 
sufficient blind to their position. It would have been folly to 
have expected to keep the movements of so numerous a force 
concealed from the Indians, in the wilderness with so large a 
part of which they were familiar ; whilst for the Americans to 
leave their lines was to expose them to the fate of Captain Boyd, 
and it was consequently judicious to conform to the ordinary 
ceremonial of camp life. Their instructions were to destroy 
the crops and villages, but so late in the season that the In- 
dians should not replant or rebuild ; to prevent their inroads on 
our settlements by retaliation, and by depriving them of means 
of annoyance : and this was effected, but, long before the ap- 
pointed task was completed, the army was put on short allow- 
ance from insufficient supplies. General Sullivan's request to 
the army to submit patiently to half rations, which had become 
from the quantity remaining unavoidable, stated that every 
effort had been made, but from inattention to his entreaties 
enough had not been provided. This gave offence to the Board 
of War ; but, long before the campaign was over or its objects 
effected, they were from this cause in danger of being defeated. 
Congress took no notice of these expressions of discontent, 
but passed the usual vote of thanks to the army for what it 
had accomplished. 



38 

Our present design is not a biograpliy. Materials exist not 
yet in print to warrant such a work. It would shed light that 
is needed upon the great historical epoch that cradled our 
national life and shaped the Republic. But whilst our institu- 
tions are considered worthy of preservation, interest in that 
epoch will little abate. Other generations will demand new 
publications, value what remains to be told of its characters 
and incidents. Prejudice and misconception will have at last 
run their course, and juster estimates be made. Should these 
materials be thus improved by some one competent for the task, 
the services Sullivan rendered to the cause of independence 
will be better appreciated. His path of duty was beset with 
many embarrassments. He had to contend with his full share 
of ill-natured opposition and ungenerous rivalry. It was a 
fiery furnace to try whatever there was of good in him, but 
among the most precious legacies our revolutionary era has left 
us are the lessons it affords for the study of character. 

Standards differ as to what is meritorious. But there are 
central points common to all. It is not for his near of kin to 
praise him, but some latitude must be allowed even to them 
when appealing to the country from what they conceive a 
systematic attempt to defame by statements they can prove to 
be untrue and inferences which are wholly unsustained. No 
human character is free from blemish. But his ardent desire 
not only to deserve but secure the favorable judgment of other 
men never swerved him from what he conceived his duty 
demanded. His quickness of temper under injury and insult, 
impatience of what he conceived open to censure, his frankness 
in expressing his mind, became chastened, and he profited by 
experience. His readiness to make reparation when he had 
given unwilling or unintentional offence, his general amiability 
and kindliness of nature, his warm sympathy with other men's 
trouljlcs and generous contributions to their needs to the extent 
of his means and opportunity, should cover a multitude of faults, 
if any he had. His character in some points was strongly 
contrasted to that of Greene, one of the noblest of the war. 
Greene was of a calmer mould, of a quieter temperament. 



39 

But they were both loyal, upright, self-sacrificing, generous, 
attached to each other as they were to Washington and 
Washington to them ; and as the friend of Washington and 
Greene, whose esteem he never forfeited or lost, the memory of 
Sullivan will remain unscathed, even under the fiery darts of 
the historian. 

Our struggle for liberty and independence was not by any 
means a series of brilliant victories. It consisted, on the 
contrary, of constant defeats, but brave and prolonged resist- 
ance to enemies more numerous, better armed and supplied 
with every appliance of war, whilst our troops were often with- 
out shoes to their feet, was more heroic, redounded more to the 
glory of the combatants than success. There were other trials 
besides physical suffering. Hope deferred imbittered the public 
mind, and whoever occupied positions of responsibility Avas 
held to rigorous account for not succeeding where success was 
impossible, and it was quite unreasonable to expect it. This 
disposition to hold him accountable for events which he could 
not control had its advantages. He was not disposed to 
parade his services, but when subjected to criticism he was 
often compelled in self-defence to state what had actually taken 
place, and details that otherwise would have been lost have been 
preserved. What he stated to Congress or other public bodies 
or in the press was with the knowledge of crowds of witnesses 
who had taken part in the events described. The accuracy of 
his statements would have been questioned if not corresponding 
with their own impressions. Every particle of information 
connected with the war has its interest, and these details are of 
value. Possibly the readiness to censure may have chilled the 
spirit of enterprise, and induced circumspection ; but in our 
Fabian policy, which was our safety, and which our inferior 
means and numbers rendered imperative, it may also have 
prevented waste of resources not easily replaced. 

As this vindication may be read by many unacquainted with 
the biographies of General Sullivan, some passages from them 
are presented to indicate what he appeared to his contempo- 
raries or to the generation that immediately followed. They 
are for the most part selected from Peabody's Memoir: — 



40 

" General Sullivan was an eloquent lawyer, a good writer, and. as a 
man, just and sagacious. He was generous, high-spirited, and intrepid; 
and, in his bearing, graceful and dignified. He conversed freely and 
with fluency; and his engaging address made the stranger at once at 
ease in his presence. He had the faculty — invaluable to an advocate 
— of making each one in a company of many persons think he was 
an object of his particular attention. He was hospitable, fond of the 
elegancies of life, prodigal of money ; but in his dealings honest, 
generous, and honorable. His temper was ordinarily mild and 
tranquil, and as far removed from petulance as any man could be, but 
when irritated it was fierce and violent. It was however transient, 
leaving behind it no feeUng of bitterness ; a single conciliatory word 
would readily disarm his anger. He was not without fondness for 
display, and at all times exercised a liberal hospitality. In his deal- 
ings he was scrupulously careful of the feelings as well as the rights of 
others ; always generous, and more careless of his own interest than 
his friends could have desired. 

" His talents must have been of no ordinary kind. Without many 
advantages of early instruction, he rose, at an early period of life, to 
high distinction at the bar, and in a few years entered the military 
service. Little time could have been spared from these engagements 
to devote to subjects unconnected with his principal pursuits ; but he 
appears to have been familiar with political science ; and his letters, 
the only productions of his pen which survive, are written in a clear, 
vigorous, and manly style. 

" He took a lively interest in military preparations for defence, 
and his writings on that subject are sensible and comprehensive. His 
religious sentiments were deep, though he shrank from display ; and a 
manuscript defence of Christianity — written in camp and circulated 
amongst his brother-officers — is alluded to in a subsequent notice of 
him, though not known to have been preserved." 

Should it be thought that too much importance has been 
attached to this charge, it must be remembered that the 
expressions used in their natural import convey an imputa- 
tion of dishonor which has no greater or less, for which had it 
been true there is no extenuation. Influence exerted or votes 
cast in legislative bodies from unworthy motives are not to be de- 
fended, cannot be palliated. The charge not only was calculated 



41 

to create prejudice from its vagueness, but from the evidence 
being in a foreign language, in a confidential letter of great 
length, occupied with other topics. It was necessary to secure 
a faithful rendering of the original letter which could not be 
questioned, and then that its contents should be passed upon 
by the leading historical societies of the country, better able to 
pass judgment upon such questions from their familiarity with 
the period, its events and personages, than the generality of 
readers. The letter of Luzerne and its translation, with the 
comments upon it herein contained, as well as the correction 
of numberless other mistakes of the historian, have been laid 
before the historical societies of Rhode Island, those of Maine, 
New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, and is 
respectfully commended to the attention of other similar soci- 
eties in America, to consider whether the acceptance of a loan 
of three hundred dollars, when penniless, in Philadelphia, from 
M. Luzerne,justifies the language used by the historian ; whether 
that language was not obviously designed to convey an impres- 
sion wholly unsupported by the evidence which, when the 
descendants of General Sullivan besought and demanded the 
proof of this cruel charge, was forthcoming. Those descendants 
may well ask the American public to credit to the unreasoning 
and unscrupulous prejudice, to use no harsher term, which has 
inspired this accusation, the unjust and uncourteous criticisms 
on his military services. There is not a statement of any 
importance in this last volume or its predecessor relating to 
him which is not wholly untrue or grossly inexact. 

Honorable and candid minds not blinded by the reputation 
of a successful writer to the claims of truth will, we are confi- 
dent, after examination of the evidence, come to the conclu- 
sion that he was not a pensioner of Luzerne ; that he did not 
for a whim keep D'Estaing ten days in the ©ffing at Newport ; 
that he sent timely notice to that ofiicer of his crossing on to 
the island ; that what Greene, Glover, Cornell, Yarnum, were 
willing to sign could not have been more than the occasion 
demanded ; and that he did not disregard Washington's order 
to leave the island, as he did not receive any, but of his own 



42 

judgraent, lost no time in withdrawing the moment it was 
prudent and sensible that he should. 

This claim upon the attention of the American public can 
require no apology. The character of our statesmen and 
general officers, prominently engaged in our revolutionary 
struggle, concerns us all. The success of that struggle against 
formidable odds and various discouragements is to be attrib- 
uted, in part, to the virtue and patriotism of the whole people, 
but also, in a great measure, to the high honor and unimpeach- 
able integrity of their leaders in counsel and field. The 
confidence which they inspired gave strength at home, and 
conciliated support from abroad. When, as in this instance, 
charges are brought which tarnish their good name, it be- 
hooves the public generally, and especially historical societies 
composed of historical students familiar with the subject, to 
investigate their truth. It is important that the vindication 
should be preserved in the transactions ; they are of a perma- 
nent nature, and will he accessible in all future times to his- 
torical writers. If evidence is wanting of any fact stated to 
show these charges groundless, it is at hand. 



APPENDIX. 



In one of the comments of the " Philadelphia Press " on 
the paper read by President Wallace, of the Historical Society 
of Pennsylvania, on the letter of Luzerne, are to be found 
certain arguments conclusive to show that not only the state- 
ments of the historian are not sustained by the evidence offered, 
but could not possibly be true : they are not embraced in 
the paper read itself, or, if suggested, not directly and fully 
presented. The article says that the document produced by 
the historian fails to show that Sullivan's vote on the fisheries 
was in any way influenced by the loan, and for the following 
reasons : — 

"1. Luzerne says tliat the delegate 'enjoys an excellent reputa- 
tion,' and that it is ' exceedingly repugnant to me to suspect that he 
wished to involve me in a correspondence with the enemy.' But to 
what purpose is such a remark if Luzerne was at the moment con- 
scious that he had himself been guilty of bribing a member of Con- 
gress, and had just bought the man in question for the paltry sum of 
sixty-eight guineas ? 

" 2. Luzerne, it must be remembered, was writing with an object, 
an interest. He had made, a long time before (' last year '), an advance 
('avance' is the French original) of the public money of France to 
Sullivan. He made no mention of it at the time to Vergennes. The 
object of his letter now is to get himself credited in account with it. 
Had he told Vergennes simply that he had made a loan to Sulli- 
van, he would have destroyed the object which he had in view. The 
answer would have bi'en, ' Get it back from Sullivan.' Could he have 
said that the interests of Franco made it expedient to bribe a certain 



44 

person, and that he had bribed him, his case would have been clear. 
But he does not say this. It looks as if the State of New Hamp- 
shire being tardy, Luzerne had made to Sullivan an ' advance ' of his 
congressional pay, on private account, and expecting certainly that the 
State would soon put Sullivan in funds to repay it ; that the State not 
doing this immediately, or soon, Luzerne considered the loan in danger, 
and now profits by the revelation which Sullivan had made to him 
about British tentatives at bribery to inform Vergennes that it was 
desirable to keep well with Sullivan, and so now lays claim to be 
refunded out of the public purse what he had advanced long before 
on an account purely private, and with an expectation of being cer- 
tainly and soon repaid. That Luzei'ne was repaid by France is not 
shown. 

" 3. "When Luzerne says that he advanced to Sullivan sixtj^-eight 
guineas, 'under the appearance of a loan,' he implies that he offered 
to lend the money, and that Sullivan took it promising to repay ; and 
he implies that not a word was said about bribe or gift. For had one 
such word been spoken, ' the appearance of a loan ' could not have 
existed. The appearance would have disappeared. Now, if Luzerne 
offered to lend the money, and if Sullivan took it promising to repay 
it, and if not a word more was said on either side, Mr. Bancroft's 
round and positive charge is unjustified, and if unjustified is defama- 
tory. That which at the time of making it was both made and re- 
ceived as a loan may be called in one sense, and when the lender thinks 
he will never again see his money, an * advance ' or even a gift ' under 
the appearance of a loan ; ' especially when by being called either the 
lender can make himself whole again out of the public purse. 

" 4. Had the money been given as a bribe, no mention of names 
would have been made as made in Luzerne's letter. Bribes are 
charged to the secret service fund ; a fund for the disposition of which 
no minister is expected to account, and where the name of the recip- 
ient would certainly not have been mentioned, the times and the agent 
having been the times and the agent of Louis XVL; the recipient 
being a major-general in the army of an ally, and a member of the 
Congress of a friendly nation. 

"When Luzerne says that he gave Sullivan sixty-eight guineas 
sous Vapparence d\m pret,^ we understand him to mean, that, though 
Sullivan was in great pecuniary necessity, he, Luzerne, could not 
undertake to offer him money as a gift; that Sullivan would have 
resented this, and therefore that he had offered to lend Sullivan money, 



45 

wliici) money, as a loan, Sullivan had accept-ed ; though it is rather 
plainly implied that Luzerne, who was writing six months after the 
loan was made, did not the7i ever expect to see his money again. But 
this don't prove that Sullivan betrayed his State for that money. 

" As for all the conversation and fears about Sullivan's going over 
to the British, it is not of any weight. The whole letter, after all, is 
but a report by a diplomat to his superior, of a conversation had six 
months before with a man who spoke a language not common to the 
two parties. The conversation bears conclusive marks of having come 
through the alembic of a vivacious Frenchman's memory, not to say, 
perhaps, in some degree of his imagination. For, though the conversa- 
tion was one six months old, Luzerne does not profess to give its 
substance, but all its very words in quoted form. It was wholly 
impossible for him to have done this, even supposing that he perfectly 
understood all that six months before Sullivan meant to say to him. 
Sullivan never saw the letter. He might have denied three-fourths 
or the whole of it. The country did not support the historian in his 
remarks about Greene and Schuyler. Neither will it, we think, in his 
charge that Sullivan betrayed New Hampshire for a few pieces of 



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